Reading to Learn
Some Super Fun Summarization in
the Sky
A Lesson for Full Alphabetic Readers
Rationale: In order to become better readers, we must truly understand what we are reading. One way to improve our comprehension is to learn how to summarize. To summarize is to take all of the important details and main ideas out of a text and combine them in a way that explains the story to someone who has not read it. This lesson helps students learn how to find those main ideas and key details in a text by having the teacher model summarization and then by summarizing themselves. The teacher will model how to pick out important details and eliminate unimportant ones, and then guide students through summarizing their own passages.
Materials:
Class set (including one for teacher) of the article "The First Airplane" from Celebrating Chemistry. American Chemical Society (2003)
- Blank bookmark shaped like an airplane (for each student)
- Markers (1 pack per group of students)
- Poster with summarizing rules
1. Delete unimportant or repeated information
2. Find important information
3. Write a topic sentence
- Overhead projector, Smart Board, or document camera with projector screen
- Pencil and paper (for each student)
- Reading Comprehension Questions:
1. Did the two brothers succeed in creating an airplane?
2. What were the names of the two men who invented the first airplane?
3. Using what you know about airplanes, what do you think was the most difficult part of creating the first one ever?
Procedures: 1. Say:Today we're going to talk about a strategy to help us comprehend what we're reading. Who remembers what it means to comprehend? (Call on student.) That's right! It does mean to understand the message of what you're reading. I hope that by the end of this lesson you will all be able to summarize texts very easily. Summarizing a text means to pick out the most important information of a text and then make it into a short paragraph or essay. It is so important that you learn how to summarize because we use summaries every day! When I read a good book and I want to share it with you, I have to think very carefully about what happened in the book and then give you a summary about what happened.
2. Say: Before we learn more about how to summarize, let's review what we've been talking about lately. Who can tell me what we've been talking about in social studies? (Call on student.) That's right! We have been talking about inventors. Now let's review some of the vocabulary we've talked about recently. Yesterday we said that an engineer is someone who applies scientific knowledge to practical problems. You could say, "The engineer who made this plane is very smart." Which of these could be an engineer? A mailman, a train conductor, or a banker? (Call on student.) That's right! A train conductor could be an engineer because he probably has to use scientific knowledge to solve practical problems on his train. Yesterday we also talked about engines. We said that an engine is a machine with moving parts that changes power into motion. You could say, "The engine in my car died so the car quit moving." Which one of these would not have an engine? An airplane, a school bus, or a bicycle? (Call on student.) That's right! A bicycle does not have an engine because you use your legs to make the bicycle move instead of using an engine.
3. Say: Now that we've reviewed our vocabulary, let's go back to talking about summarizing. (Display summarizing rules poster.) You all have airplane shaped bookmarks and markers on your desks. I want you to copy down each rule as we talk about it, and then at the end of the lesson I'll give you all a few extra minutes to decorate your bookmark. This will help us all remember the rules of summarization! The first rule of summarizing is "delete unimportant or repeated information." Go ahead and write that down. (Allow writing time.) This means that if you see something that's not really important for the meaning of the text or something that you've already marked as important, you may draw an X through it (if it's a separate article like the one we're using today) or mentally delete it (if it's in a textbook). The second rule of summarizing is to "find important information." Go ahead and write that down too. (Allow writing time.) This means that when you see something that you think is important to know you should underline it or maybe write down a key word or phrase. The third rule of summarizing is to "write a topic sentence." Write that on your bookmark. (Allow writing time.) This part is a little trickier, and we will practice it together in a moment, but it means that once you've picked out the parts of the text that are important (what the paragraph is about and what the point is), you combine them to create a topic sentence. This topic sentence captures all the important parts of a paragraph within a text.
4. Pass out copies of "The First Airplane," and display a copy on the board using an overhead projector, a Smart Board, or a document camera. Give a booktalk for "The First Airplane" by saying, "This article is about two brothers who had a great idea. They wanted to build an airplane, even though people may have thought they were crazy. Do you think they'll succeed? Let's read to find out!
Say: Now we're going to practice summarizing as a class. Let's look at the first paragraph of our article:
At 10:35 a.m. on December 17, 1903, two brothers from Ohio flew the first successful airplane for 12 seconds and 120 feet along a beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Taking turns as pilot, they flew three more times that day. Each time they flew farther. On their fourth try, they managed to go 852 feet in 59 seconds--an amazing feat at the time. The two brothers had invented powered flight.
Say: I want everyone to be following along with me and paying attention to how I follow these rules. Let's look at the first sentence: At 10:35 a.m. on December 17, 1903. Do you think it's important to know the date? (Discuss.) Sometimes it is important to know the dates of things, but for the purpose of just understanding the main points of this article we don't really need to know the date. (Make an X through the date.) Let's keep reading: two brothers from Ohio flew the first successful airplane for 12 seconds and 120 feet along a beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Hmm . . . What parts of this sentence are important for my understanding? I think the part about two brothers might be important so I'm going to underline it. From Ohio . . . I'll make an X through that because I don't think I really need to know that they're from Ohio. "flew the first successful airplane." Oh I bet that part is important! I'll underline it. "for 12 seconds and 120 feet along a beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina." I think it may be important that they were in North Carolina so I'll underline that. "taking turns as pilot, they flew three more times that day. Each time they flew farther. On their fourth try, they managed to go 852 feet in 59 seconds--an amazing feat at the time." Since it says it's an amazing feat, I'll underline that they flew for 59seconds. "The two brothers had invented powered flight." I think I'll underline that because it definitely seems important.
So now that we've applied rules 1 and 2 of summarizing to this paragraph, I'm going to demonstrate how to use rule 3 and create a topic sentence using the parts I underlined. I've got two brothers, flew the first successful airplane, North Carolina, 59 seconds, two brothers invented powered flight. Now I need to make this into a sentence that makes sense. Well since I have "two brothers" already, I'll make an X through the first one. And now I've got: "Two brothers flew the first successful airplane in North Carolina for 59 seconds." Now the only part left in that last phrase that isn't repeated is the part about it being a powered flight. So I'll change my topic sentence to: "Two brothers flew the first successful powered airplane in North Carolina for 59 seconds."
Does everyone understand what I just did? Does anyone have any questions?
5. Say: Now I'm going to let you all practice summarizing with the rest of this article. I want you to go through each paragraph and break it down like we just did. Be sure to follow the rules for summary and then change the order around in your topic sentence if necessary so that it makes sense. I want you to write a topic sentence for each paragraph in the article. You may just copy the sentence that I wrote for paragraph one, and then you will write four more topic sentences of your own. When you are finished, staple your article to your paper with the topic sentences and turn it in. Then you may decorate your bookmark. You will all have time to decorate your bookmark, so please do not speed through the assignment just to have time to color. I can't wait to read your amazing summaries of this article!
6. Assessment: Teacher will evaluate student’s markings on the passage that they are given, as well as the summaries they have written. Teacher will use the summarization rubric given above. Their sentences for each paragraph may vary slightly, but a good topic sentence for the second paragraph might be: Orville and Wilbur Wright never learned about engineering, but they learned how gears and pulleys worked from working on bicycles in their shop. I will assess their summaries for the entire article and give bonus points if they are able to summarize the whole article in ONE sentence.
Also, I will ask these comprehension questions for a Reading Comprehension check at the end:
1. Did the two brothers succeed in creating an airplane?
2. What were the names of the two men who invented the first airplane?
3. Using what you know about airplanes, what do you think was the most difficult part of creating the first one ever?
References:
"The First Airplane" from Celebrating Chemistry. American Chemical Society, 2003.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie
https://sites.google.com/site/waldenswonderfullessons/home/flying-through-summarization
https://sites.google.com/site/myctrdlessons/home/reading-to-learn-super-summarizers
Return to the Handouts Index
Did the student... Yes No
Read the article
all the way through?
Pick out the most important
information from the article
based on methods used in class?
Delete trivial information?
Comprehend the information
from the article?
Write a short paragraph
summarizing the most important
parts of the article read?